The association of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection with glomerulonephritis (GN) has been well documented in Japan but not in North America. Recently, eight renal biopsies with IgA-predominant or -codominant GN from eight patients with underlying staphylococcal infection, but without endocarditis, were observed at a single institution in a 12-mo period. Renal biopsies were worked up by routinely used methodologies. Eight cases of primary IgA nephropathy were used as controls. Five patients had MRSA infection, one had methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) infection, and two had methicillin-sensitive S. aureus infection. Four patients became infected after surgery; two patients were diabetic and had infected leg ulcers. All patients developed acute renal failure, with active urine sediment and severe proteinuria. Most renal biopsies showed only mild glomerular hypercellularity. Two biopsies had prominent mesangial and intracapillary hypercellularity; one of them (the MRSE-associated case) had large glomerular hyalin thrombi. This patient also had a positive cryoglobulin test. Rare glomerular hyalin thrombi were noted in two other cases. Immunofluorescence showed IgA pre-or codominance in all biopsies. Electron microscopy revealed mesangial deposits in all cases. Five biopsies had rare glomerular capillary deposits as well. In the MRSE-associated GN, large subendothelial electron-dense deposits were present. These cases demonstrate that staphylococcal (especially MRSA) infection-associated GN occurs in the US as well, and a rising incidence is possible. It is important to differentiate a Staphylococcus infection-associated GN from primary IgA nephropathy to avoid erroneous treatment with immunosuppressive medications.Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 1: 1179 -1186, 2006. doi: 10.2215/CJN.01030306 S taphylococci are widespread pathogens and their frequent antibiotic resistance makes treatment difficult. Occasional episodes of glomerulonephritis (GN) after Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteremia in patients with ventriculoatrial or ventriculojugular shunts and after S. aureus bacteriemia secondary to endocarditis are well documented and are discussed in most nephrology and renal pathology textbooks. These Staphylococcus infection-related glomerulonephritides are associated with glomerular immune complex deposits, which contain complement (mainly C3) IgG and sometimes IgM. Much less is known about GN associated with methicillinresistant S. aureus (MRSA), and methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE), which are now endemic in most hospitals. A growing number of community-acquired infections are also reported (1).The association of MRSA infection with GN has been well documented in Japan (2-9). Based primarily on these publications, it appears evident that S. aureus-associated GN is characterized by glomerular IgA deposits; therefore, the renal biopsy findings strongly resemble primary (idiopathic) IgA nephropathy. The IgA-containing immune complexes are mainly deposited in the mesangium, but they ...

The risk of PBB increases with high SBP, DBP or MAP. A history of hypertension and high serum creatinine are significant independent risk factors for PBB.

The diagnosis of glomerulonephritis flares in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is usually based on whether the magnitude of proteinuria has changed. Our study tests two methods to assess proteinuric change: protein/creatinine (P/C) ratios of intended 24-h urine collections or that of spot urine samples. Sixty-four patients with glomerulonephritis due to SLE followed in the Ohio SLE Study provided bimonthly paired spot and intended 24-h urine collections. Completeness of each collection was estimated as the ratio of the measured creatinine to the expected creatinine based upon Cockroft-Gault. Intended 24-h urine collections with measured/expected creatinine ratios between 0.5 and 0.9 (237 samples overall) showed ratios that were not significantly different from ratios of complete 24-h urine collections with ratios of 0.9-1.1 (159 samples). To compare spot and 24 h P/C ratios, we randomly selected pairs of samples with measured/expected ratios above 0.75. Consistent with previous studies, spot and 24-h urine P/C ratios showed good correlation over the range of values as well as reasonably strong concordance. Over the range of most SLE glomerulonephritis flares, however, correlation was present but concordance was poor. Our work suggests that the use of spot urine P/C ratios will yield more false-positive and -negative diagnoses of glomerulonephritis flares in patients with SLE than the ratio in 24-h urines.

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